The Water Program of IANAS carried out a research workshop from the 15th to the 18th of October 2025 in Iquitos, Department of Loreto in the Amazon Region of Peru. This workshop was sponsored by the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS) through IAP and the National Academy of Sciences of Peru.

The objective of the workshop focused on analyzing the current management of waters, forests and sand in the Peruvian Amazons based on the interchange of experts and researchers of different institutions and disciplines concerning the dynamics and related critical topics of environmental and social issues of the territory. The aim of the event was to receive the input of the researchers and actors to elaborate a project of investigation and intervention to develop strategies and policies originating from knowledge and information related to the local and regional context and specific problems of the Andean Amazons.

The workshop was developed in 3 days of interchange between the international water experts of the Water Program of IANAS with professors and researchers of the National Academy of Science of Peru, the National University of the Peruvian Amazons (UNAP), the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) and the Molina National Agrarian University (UNALM). The research team consisted of an interdisciplinary group of experts in such topics as surface waters, water and forests, water and health, geography and environment, hydrology and hydroclimatology, regional and environmental geology, environmental sciences, botany and biodiversity, economy and forest management, architecture and sustainable infrastructure, urbanistic and territorial sustainable development, social anthropology and ethnology, forest engineering, restoration of ecosystems of the Amazons and among these investigators with vast experience in the Amazons. Throughout the contributions and interchange, it was stressed the urgent need to understand better the interrelation and effects of sand mining that implies growing deforestation with consequences for the water resources; therefore, highlighting the need to develop alternatives for materials and infrastructure design to cut the extraction of sand in the construction. The need for search and development of alternatives was made even more clear with knowledge of the global context where sand stands out as the second most extracted resource after water. Urbanization on a local and regional scale was also presented along with other social environmental processes as the loss of the special cultural identity of the population of the Amazons. All this points to the need for improved education, formation and projection dealing with these critical topics of the amazon society.

Currently, a project is being elaborated based on these needs for investigation and the corresponding possible interventions considering the main priorities identified in the workshop.

At the end of the workshop an open conference was organized for students, professors and public of Iquitos where the results of the workshop were presented and possible elements of a new project to be developed “Water, forests and sand: new scientific horizons for the Amazons and its sustainability”.